Uninsured drivers contributing to rate hikes

The cost of auto insurance is rising across the country, and that could have something to do with the roughly 13 percent of all motorists nationwide who do not carry insurance.

The problem, reports television station WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina, is that roughly 10 percent of all drivers nationwide remain uninsured. While South Carolina has a relatively new Auto Insurance Reporting System that has helped reduce that number by about 13 percent in the last few years, many states still do not have such a system in place.

Before South Carolina implemented its system, one insurance agent told the station, it was among the lowest-ranked in the nation with about 28 percent of its motorists driving without insurance.

A recent report from the Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal said that while 22 percent of that city's residents still don't have auto insurance, the number there is also on the decline thanks to new laws that made driving on a public road without insurance a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $500. The state also has access to insurance databases that make it easier to spot fake or lapsed insurance cards.